In addition to returning to the home screen, is acts as a fingerprint sensor and, with a double click, speedily opens up the camera app. Holding it down leads to the Google Now menu.

Try doing that with an on-screen button. All of a sudden, that no-look mechanic isn't an option, requiring your eyes to look down at the screen more than they already do.

3. Disappearing physical buttons are a bad trend

Physical buttons are on the endangered "specs" list, and like a lot of new trends, I don't much care for it. Maybe I'm just getting old, but my fingers like knowing what I'm pressing.

Apple's fingerprints are already all over the murder weapon - it axed the mute switch on the iPad Air 2 in favor of an on-screen mute toggle. The next iPhone could be in for the same.

The latest iPad has already axed the mute switch. Is 'home' next?

The mute switch is one of the iPhone features I like that you won't find on Android. Could it and an on-screen home button be the next things Apple adopts from Google?

For current iPhone owners without Android experience, remember when you'd toggle a big on and off switch on an older game console like the N64? Now think about the PS3 or PS4.

Haptic feedback buttons are hardly a solution. How many times did I mean to turn off my PS4 and reset it instead? The even smaller, harder-to-see buttons of the PS4 made things worse.

That's the sort of interface I expect from a new iPhone without a home button: confusing and not always working well. I have enough problems with the on-screen keyboard ever since autocorrect seemingly became dumber with the iOS 8.3 update.

Let's get physical

Let's get real. I'm going to buy the next iPhone and the one after that and the one after that, whether there's an on-screen button or a physical one.

I'm just a fan of phones, and while I rate the current Samsung Galaxy S6 higher than the iPhone 6 by one place on our best phones ranking, Apple makes a great mobile device.